


Keith Has a Gay Crisis™

by Zurela



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, M/M, keith is too gay for his own good
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-10
Updated: 2017-08-10
Packaged: 2018-12-13 12:37:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11760051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zurela/pseuds/Zurela
Summary: Keith and Lance sneak away in the middle of the night to gather information on Lotor's whereabouts, which is theworst possible timefor Keith to realize he's in love with Lance.





	Keith Has a Gay Crisis™

**Author's Note:**

> This story came from a post by ackerchou on tumblr who basically requested exactly what the title says. And I love for pining Keith, so here we are. Sorry it gets a little sad for a second there! I don't think I'm capable of writing pure fluff?

Keith didn’t want to say anything, but he was getting antsy.

With Shiro back and somewhat taking control of the team again, their attention had drifted from finding Lotor and turned back to their usual rescue missions and work freeing colonized planets. Not that that was a bad thing, but Lotor hadn’t been heard from in a long time, and there was still the issue of the comet to think about.

When he brought it up to the team, though, Shiro shot it down quickly. He seemed to do that a lot since he returned from the Galra capture, which seemed odd. After all, Shiro was the one who wanted Keith to lead, yet he seemed to contradict every decision he made. It was suspicious, but rocking the boat at such a delicate time would only be disastrous in the end.

So Keith would just have to do it by himself.

Reconnaissance was best without many people, anyways. There was a base not far from the castle that he suspected would have information, so he could just sneak in and take a look around, then be back before anyone even realized he was gone.

Keith waited for everyone else to retreat to their rooms for the night, then grabbed his suit and headed for his lion. Careful of every step, he managed to successfully maneuver through the halls without being seen.

Then the door to his lion’s hangar opened, and there was Lance.

He was propped up against the side of the black lion, his armor on and bayard lazily dangling from his hand. The sound of the opening door startled him and sent him nearly toppling over.

Keith sighed. _What_.

Lance finally noticed him, then quickly covered his surprise with a smug grin. “Ha, so I was right,” he teased. “I knew you were sneaking off!”

Keith huffed and crossed his arms, not bothering to cover it up. “What gave me away?”

“You’ve been too quiet,” he said. “You suddenly stopped mentioning Lotor at all, even though you’ve been so pushy about it. This isn’t your first time running off, Keith, I know you too well.”

“Ugh, fine, you caught me. Whatever. Why are you all suited up, though?”

Lance winked. “Because I’m your right-hand man, remember?”

Keith’s throat dropped to the bottom of his stomach.

_Why is he doing that with his face. Why is he winking at me why is he so-_

“Besides,” Lance continued, oblivious to Keith’s personal meltdown. “Someone needs to watch out for you. You’re too impulsive, so you can’t tell me that you wouldn’t chase Lotor down the second you found even a hint on where he might be. Also, you would probably die.”

“That’s not-!” Except no, that was probably true, Keith probably would, in fact, die. 

Keith took a slow, deep breath. “I’m the leader. Or, at least I’m _supposed_ to be. I thought you said you respected that, do you not trust me now?”

Lance waved his hands frantically. “No! I trust you! Which is why…” he paused, holding out a hand in front of him. “I’m coming with you, and _not_ running to tell the team right now.”

Keith was absolutely floored. To go from blatantly refusing to follow him, to sneaking off with him on some secret mission, _alone_...

That same feeling in his stomach returned

Keith sighed. Whatever that feeling was, now was not the time to deal with it.  
__________

 _That feeling needed to be dealt with immediately_.

At first, Keith thought something was wrong. He felt disoriented and nervous, like the start of a panic attack. His face felt like it was being electrocuted, and there was a distinct concern of a spontaneous allergic reaction. To what, Keith had no idea.

Whatever it was, now was not a good time. The two of them had arrived at the base and managed to sneak inside without being detected, only to realize that the entire place was overrun with patrol droids. Too many for just a supply base. There was either some sort of weapon, or information that needed to be guarded. And based on the lack of many actual Galra, Keith was betting on the latter.

Forcing the feeling down, Keith led the two of them through the halls, wandering aimlessly in search of answers. Keith snuck up on any robots he could with his bayard, while Lance watched his back. Without Pidge there to scramble any of their equipment, stealth would have to work. It wasn’t their best option, but it worked.

“Someone’s coming!”

Or it _was_ working, until a Galra general started heading towards them. Before Keith could even react, Lance had wrapped an arm around his waist and launched them into the rafters.

Keith reeled, alarmed and disoriented, but Lance was already on it. He crouched to one knee, extending his bayard into its sniper rifle form, eyeing through the scope to get a closer look. The feeling in Keith’s stomach returned with a vengeance, and his entire face seemed to light on fire.

 _Oh_. So Keith wasn’t sick or dying, he was just very, very gay, and very, very in love with Lance.

That was...something.

Not something that was entirely unbelievable, though. The two of them hadn’t quite moved past their rivalry, but it was more playful than spiteful now. Lance kept him in check, following him as the leader without blindly agreeing to his impulsive choices. When Shiro was gone, he was the support that Keith needed, and apparently Keith’s gratitude had developed into something stronger. Plus, there was the new sniper rifle that he had unlocked with the red bayard. Keith _loved_ the sn-

Oh wait Lance was talking to him.

Snapping himself out of his thoughts, Keith finally noticed Lance’s concerned expression. “Keith. You with me? You okay?”

Keith swallowed thickly. “Yeah, I’m okay.” The high-pitched squeak that came out contradicted him. “Got distracted. What did you say?”

Lance looked him over again before nodding. “Okay. I saw that guy go to a room down the hall. Let’s wait for him to leave and see what’s up.”

Not yet trusting his voice, Keith just nodded his assent and focused his attention to the hallway. Absolutely not looking at Lance, nope. No way. They had a mission to think about.

Once the Galra general left and disappeared from sight, Lance waved Keith forward and down the hall. Despite the presence of so many droids and robots, there was no lock on the door. Either it wouldn’t be as easy as they hoped, or no one had expected them to get that far.

The room itself was relatively bare, just a small panel perched near the back wall. It seemed too small to be a computer, but maybe-

Lance grabbed Keith’s arm and slapped his hand onto the panel.

The entire thing lit up and expanded, and Keith hoped the orange glow of the screens hid his blush. At this point, he was ready to slap Lance. _Stop touching me! I am already too gay for this!!!_

Lance immediately went to work, clearly having no clue how anything worked but trying nonetheless. Keith stood by his side, nearly bumping their shoulders together. Hopefully Lance thought he was looking over his shoulder at the screen, and didn’t realize that Keith was fixated on his face.

Could you blame him? Lance had his tongue stuck out in concentration, his eyebrows wrinkled together. He looked ridiculous (and also beautiful but that was nothing new).

A whooshing sound had Keith spinning. The door had opened, and a small patrol of robots had entered, blasters firing away without direction. Lance jumped from the screen, knocking each robot out with one shot each, before shooting the panel and sending the door flying shut.

All those robots together, shooting multiple times, failed to even graze them. Yet Lance had taken each one out immediately.

Fuck yeah. What a cool guy.

But…

“Hey Lance?” Keith questioned. “Wasn’t that our only way out?”

Lance jumped and looked around the room, The walls were all solid metal, no hidden doors or panels. No windows.

Lance rubbed the back of his head. “Whoops?”

Keith smiled. “Whatever, at least we’re safe for now. They definitely know we’re here by now, so leaving isn’t going to be pretty. Let’s just take our time and figure this out.”

Lance huffed. “Not sure how likely that is. All the time in the world couldn’t help me figure this out.”

“Need help?” a new voice chimed in.

“Gahh!!” Lance ripped his helmet off and stared at it. “Wait. Was that Pidge?” He squeezed the helmet back over his head.

“Pidge,” Keith called into his comms. “What are you doing up right now?”

Pidge laughed. “Keith, you and I both know that sleep is for the weak.”

Keith hesitated for a moment, ready to protest, but a pointed look from Lance made him pause. “Good point. Can you help us?”

They could practically hear the grin in her voice. “You know I can. Lance, walk me through what you see.”

Keith watched as Lance went to work, suddenly filing through new screens, one after another. Whatever was hiding in there, they would have to dig deep to find it. Maybe going alone really was a bad idea. Pidge was their tech expert, he would have never found anything without her. Lance had saved his butt multiple times so far, and they hadn’t even faced the worst of it yet.

Had he known, when he decided to come? Did he know that this was destined for failure, yet still agree to come? Maybe Lance had noticed the same mysterious attitude in Shiro that he had, and knew they needed to be sneaky. Or maybe…

Maybe he really did trust Keith enough to go with it.

“Hey,” Pidge called out through their comms. “How’s it hanging, dude?”

Keith startled, but noticed that Lance hadn’t moved. He kept his gaze trained on the screen, filing through all sorts of nonsense that Keith couldn’t decipher. Pidge must have been just talking to him.

“I did everything I could for him,” she explained, as if she already knew exactly what he was thinking. “The rest is on him, now. If there’s anything to be found in there, he should be able to find it. How are you holding up?”

Keith stepped back from Lance so he couldn’t hear them. “You knew too?” he asked, ignoring her question. “Why didn’t you come along? We could’ve used you.”

That same mischievous tone returned to her voice. “I didn’t want to interrupt your bonding time.”

Keith suppressed a deep groan. “Pidge. Please help me. I am so gay.”

Pidge laughed. “I know. Are you just figuring that out? You look at Lance like he hung the moon.”

“What do I _do_ ,” he hissed through gritted teeth.

Pidge groaned. “You idiot, just tell him.”

“I can’t just-”

“Sorry, I gotta go,” she announced, and Lance’s sudden perk told Keith that he heard that too. “Kitchen emergency! You know how it is.”

Lance turned to him. “Kitchen emergency…?”

“Uh, just ignore her,” Keith said. “Did you find anything?”

Lance nodded, but seemed to hesitate. “Yeah, I think so. I can’t decipher it, we have to take it back to the castle. It might be nothing, but…”

“But it might be something.”

Lance nodded. He uploaded the files he had pulled into his suit to be sent back to the castle. Pidge and Coran could figure out the rest when they got back. For now, though, they needed to get out of there.

The two of them approached the door, side by side. Keith turned to Lance. “You ready?”

Lance took a shaky breath and nodded. “Let’s do this.” And he blasted the doors open.

All hell broke loose.

Robots swarmed them immediately. The Galra general from earlier was there, though he kept his distance. Apparently with so many robots around, the Galra didn’t think it necessary to send a good fighter to look over the place.

Keith grinned. That was fine by him. And he and Lance got to work, running through the halls and leaving a trail of wrecked metal figures behind them.  
__________

“On your left!”

Keith whirled to the side, tossing his sword from one hand to the other and slicing a robot straight through the middle. They had run as far as they could, but an intersection in the halls left them surrounded. 

Back to back, they shouted out orders that the other followed blindly. They moved quickly, with total precision and trust. Not long ago the two of them failed to even beat a simulation together without a fight, and yet now they acted as two individuals sharing one brain.

A wicked grin spread across Keith’s face. They were kicking ass.

A fleet of droids came hovering into the fray, lasers blasting in every direction. Keith had his sights set directly on them, but Lance had their back to them, and was too preoccupied with aiming his rifle to notice their approach. There were too many robots on either of them to focus their attention elsewhere.

Shit. “Lance, shield!” he commanded. Without even glancing up, Lance extended his shield and held it out to his side. Keith charged him, jumping onto the shield and using his jets to launch himself into the air. 

One of the larger drones followed his movement, warming its laser to blast him out of the air. Keith flew directly into it, wrapping his entire body around it and aiming the impending blast away. The laser shot out, cutting a line across the ground and into the ceiling.

Keith used his jets to flip himself completely over, so that he was laying on top of the droid as it shot directly into the floor below. Then he let himself fall back, tilting the beam so that it eliminated an entire row of soldiers on the ground. The two of them fought each other, Keith wrestling for control, but managed to cut through one wave of robots after another.

It didn’t matter what they hit. So long as he didn’t hit Lance.

After that, it didn’t take long to take down the fleet of robots. The general had disappeared, probably hiding away in order to save his own hide. Keith finally stretched his arm out, his sword stabbing straight into the laser of the droid. It shut down with a hum, clattering to the floor and taking Keith with it.

He landed with a thump, straight on his back. As the world righted itself above him, Lance’s tall figure took shape above him.

He leaned down with a wide smile and extended an arm. “That? Was _awesome_.”

Keith huffed out an exhausted laugh and grabbed his hand, letting Lance pull him back to his feet. He slumped into Lance’s side, tired from his stupid stunt but also desperate to be close to Lance, to make sure he was okay and know that they had conquered this together.  
__________

It didn’t take long to make it back to the black lion after that. A few more robots made an appearance, but Lance shot them out of the air before they could do anything.

The black lion remained untouched, thankfully. With all the soldiers coming for them, none of them were left to search for their ride. The sight of it left Keith’s knees weak, and he finally remembered that he hadn’t slept in nearly 24 hours. Pidge was wrong. Sleep was not for the weak. He needed some very badly.

Lance strode ahead of him, the adrenaline from their fight keeping him alert. Keith watched him walk, noticed the jump in his step and the power in his stance. Even though it was difficult, there was something about such a triumphant victory that left them both in a good mood.

That feeling reared in Keith’s stomach again, and he let himself embrace it. They had won, there was no need to be on edge anymore, and he had finally come to terms with it. He was in love with Lance.

That thought bubbled in his throat and seemed to choke him, and suddenly it felt impossible not to say anything. Maybe it was the fact that Lance was so happy, or the high from taking down so many robots together, but this was it. This was the moment.

Keith swallowed the knot in his throat and braced himself. “Lance?”

Lance whirled, a bright smile still spread across his face. He opened his mouth to respond, then paused. His eyes widened, and his mouth sat agape. Suddenly, he leapt from the bridge leading into the black lion’s mouth.

“Watch out!”

Keith whirled around, and a blue blur flashed across his vision. Lance fell to the floor beneath him, and Keith’s vision went red.

If it felt like his face was burning before, this felt like his entire body had been launched into the sun. He moved without thinking, in a typical Keith fashion, and then there was a pile of destroyed robots at his feet. Wires poked out and sparked everywhere. Each of them was positively mangled.

Keith paused to marvel at the mess before remembering the situation. He sliced the panel on the wall and sent the door shut before whirling around and running back to Lance, who hadn’t moved from his spot on the ground.

He rolled Lance onto his side, eyes trailing his abdomen and landing on his left side. His black flight suit had been burnt away, and a large wound tore across his side. Lance’s eyes had fluttered shut, but he seemed to be conscious.

“Lance,” Keith instructed, forcing the panic out of his voice. “Stay awake, okay? I’ll get you out of here but you need to stay awake.”

Lance just groaned.

Keith dragged him onto the black lion, lying him on the floor of the cockpit and kneeling beside him. “Please, I can’t fly right now, please just get us back to the castle.”

The black lion hummed to life and launched out of the dock.

Keith sat over Lance, keeping his hands pressed against his side. It wasn’t even bleeding, it was probably just hurting Lance more, but Keith needed to do _something_ , because Lance was laying there and he wasn’t moving and there had to be something he could do to make this better.

His vision wavered, and tears spilled over his eyes and dripped onto Lance’s stomach. This was too much, he couldn’t take this. Lance took a shot meant for him like some idiot, like he had done for Coran, like Sven had done for Lance, and it was too much. This happened too often and Keith was _done with it_.

So he kept one hand pressed on Lance’s abdomen, and another gripped tightly around his limp hand. He felt like he should say something, to reassure Lance, to reassure himself, but all that came out was “I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry-”

And before he knows it, they’re back in the castle.

Fuck stealth. Fuck operating under Shiro’s nose, or letting everyone get their much-needed sleep. Keith hoists Lance into his arms and runs as far as he can before he collapses. And he screams.

It’s probably not his best idea, screaming bloody murder in the middle of the night. Then again, it is an emergency, and Keith is too exhausted to form words and too scared to leave Lance alone right now.

Soon the entire team is there, looked frantic and scared, before noticing them on the ground. Keith is still yelling for help, and Shiro has to come over and pull him back before he lets go of Lance. Hunk scoops him up and carries him off to the infirmary, and suddenly everyone is gone and Keith is just crying against Shiro’s chest.

Shiro rubs his back and shushes him. “Hey, it’s fine, he’s okay. You got him here in time. He’s fine.”

Keith sighs, needing the reassurance that everything was fine. He probably overreacted, Lance had survived worse, but then the team had been there and Lance hadn’t jumped in front of a gun for _him_ -

“What happened?”

Keith shakes his head. “We went off looking for information on Lotor’s location. Everything was fine, but then they caught us off guard when we were leaving and he took a shot for me.”

Shiro frowned. “What were you thinking, Keith? Why would you go off alone like that, and without telling anybody? You could have been killed, _Lance_ could have been killed-”

“Shiro,” Keith snarled, pushing away from his grasp and rising to his feet. “I know that.”  
__________

Keith spent the rest of the night camped in front of the healing pod, refusing to move or sleep or eat until Lance was out. Pidge had finally had enough of it, and came marching in with a pillow and a bowl of goo.

She thrusted both in front of his face. “Eat.”

He huffed. “I’m fine.”

She rolled her eyes. “Okay, except clearly you’re not. You need to take care of yourself.”

Keith glared at her. “You’re one to talk.”

She dropped her arms, but the frown on her face persisted. “That was rude. I’m trying to help you.”

Keith sighed and dropped his face into his hands. “I know. I’m sorry.”

Her expression softened, and she placed the food on the floor next to him. “Look. Stay here and wait if you want, since we all know you will anyways. He’s fine now. Tell him the truth when he comes out.”

Keith glanced at her. “I can’t.”

Pidge fixed him with a serious look. “Keith, be honest with me. If that shot had been fatal, and he died without ever knowing, would you ever forgive yourself?”

Keith didn’t answer, but she nodded anyways. They both knew the answer to that question. She patted him on the back, then shoved the bowl of food onto his lap.

“That’s what I thought. Let us know when he’s up, but not until you guys talk.”  
__________

He wasn’t there for much longer, not even as long as it had taken to heal from the bomb blast. Yet it felt exactly the same, as Lance came stumbling out in a haze of fog and ice. Keith jumped to his feet and grabbed him, pulling him into a tight hug.

Lance woke slowly, but soon realized that Keith was squeezing the life out of him. “Uhh...Keith?”

Keith pulled back to look up at him, then smacked him on the shoulder. “Don’t ever do that again, jerk! Why would you do that?”

Lance shrugged. “I couldn’t let anything happen to you.”

Keith groaned. “Yes, you could! It was my fault, that shot was meant for me, you can’t just...you can’t…” he trailed off, refusing to let Lance see him cry.

Lance startled and grabbed him. “Hey, what? What’s wrong? It wasn’t your fault some stupid robot tried to shoot you while your back was turned!”

Keith rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands, trying to wipe the weariness out of his head. “Yeah, but I was distracted. I should’ve heard the door open, I should’ve reacted quicker, but I was too focused on-”

“On what?”

Keith looked into his eyes, but they weren’t joking or harsh, just curious. Keith crossed his arms and looked away. “Nothing.”

Lance choked out a breathy laugh. “Dude, I know you were distracted. It was pretty clear the whole time, you seemed like you were in another world. What was going on? You can tell me.”

Keith looked back, into his dumb curious eyes, and his dumb beautiful face, and his dumb beautiful everything.

_”Tell him the truth.”_

Keith sighed. Fuck it. 

“I was distracted by you. Because I realized I’m in love with you at the _worst_ possible moment, and you were so focused and determined, and you were being so nice to me, and then we were fighting together, and you had my back, and god, the _sniper rifle_

_Keith huffed, out of breath from his rant but also because his heart was suddenly trying to beat itself out of his chest. His face burned, and he glanced quickly to Lance’s awestruck expression before staring holes into the ground._

__

And Lance _laughed_.

__

Keith’s face somehow burned deeper. He wanted to run, he wanted to get out of there and never talk to another human being again. Before he could escape, a hand gripped his arm.

__

Lance rubbed his eyes and his chuckles died off. “Sorry, sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.”

__

Keith stomped his foot. “Then how did you-”

__

Lance was kissing him.

__

Keith was _fine_ with that.

__

When they broke away, Lance had a big, dumb grin on his face. “You’re such a huge dork. I can’t believe you couldn’t focus because you were too busy being gay.

__

Keith rolled his eyes and grabbed his shoulders, pulling him in for another kiss.

__

**Author's Note:**

> Damn Keith, same.
> 
> [I have a tumblr](https://zurela.tumblr.com/)! In case you want more of this nonsense.


End file.
